METEORITE ADVENTURES: NEW ORLEANS

September 2003

On Tuesday, September 23,. 2003 at ~4:00 pm, a large meteorite fell in downtown New Orleans. A single stone fell through the roof of a house, and destroyed an antique wooden desk, penetrated the upstairs room floor, then entered the downstairs bathroom, narrowly missing the toilet. It then punctured a hole through the bottom floor of the house, entering the ground beneath the home and then shattering into many pieces. The estimated weight of the stone (in fragments)  is ~20 kilograms.

Amazingly, it seems that no one saw or heard and sign of this meteorite as it entered the atmosphere, and the only report of any sound was made by the neighbor, who heard what she thought was a car accident at ~4:00 pm. She rushed outside and saw nothing, then forgot about the sound until her neighbor came home that evening and came over asking her about why his home was severely damaged. They thought that perhaps an airplane part had fallen off and hit the house. When he sorted through the debris, he noticed small pieces of burned stone, and then realized that it must be a meteorite.

I was visiting my friend in Arkansas when I heard of the fall, my friend and I immediately jumped on a flight to New Orleans, and made arrangements to see the lucky owner of the newly destroyed home the next day.

The meteorite is being sent out for analysis and more data will follow when I get it.
The meteorite appears to be a very fragile chondrite, I saw many small chondrules, and some metal. My guess is (H5).

Here is a large fragment.
Two smaller fragments.
Roy and myself!
Roy and Gary Loyd.
The house from the street. The meteorite impact is only visible as the light roof patch in the far left center of the roof at the end of the house.
Another view of the impact on the roof. The roof was repaired the next morning, so only the patch is visible in the center (lighter tiles).